United States Lines mugs

Alright...I'm a total newbie when it comes to collecting tiki so I need some imput.

Couple of days ago I found a set of 6 United States Lines tiki mugs that included a tiki, a pineapple, trigger fish, bird, volcano and a wave being surfed. They all are in their original boxes. The opening bid was only $25 so I put a bid in on a lark AND WON! Total comes to about $46 for the 6 mugs.

I know nothing about the United States Line mugs. Are there more designs? Did I get a decent deal? Please, educate me.

Are they from the American Hawaiian Cruise line? If so, you got a good price. They are collectable now because they went out of business, I think about five years ago. I use to be a bartender with them in the eighties.
Show some pics please.

I'm not completly sure. The auction ad said that they were collected right before the line went out of business I would assume that it is the Hawaiian Cruise Lines.

[ Edited by: Dancin' Lizard on 2005-03-07 13:26 ]

I bet that these came from Hawaii. Am I right? These were from of all people, Gecko, I believe.

Well, I did a little snooping around ebay to see if anything else like this had more information and all I found was that they were apparently sold in the gift shops of the United States Lines. So far that's all I came up with.

It's reasonable to assume that they did come from the Hawaiian Cruises.

Rum-dum recently sold ONE of those volcano mugs for $43 so I guess you did OK. Could've been a fluke though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3953712039&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

I kinda dig the triggerfish mug.

A check on ebay's completed auctions found the volcano one that sold above and a hula girl that went for $20 on a BIN auction and another that went for $30. Also found the pineapple mug that went for $43 also by rum-dum.

Searching current auctions which have a couple listing at around the $5 mark I found

"Hawaii is celebrating today as Norwegian Cruise Lines has introduced the Pride of Aloha to delight tourists and locals alike on 7 day interisland voyages, but back before 2001 it was American Hawaii Cruises (a part of the United States Line) plying the Hawaiian waters with the SS Independence and Constitution. Due to the horrible 9/11, American Hawaii Cruises is gone, but here is a colorful Limited Edition State Fish called the Humuhumunu kunukuapuaa ceremic cocktail glass that will help remember what once was. Today, the SS Independence sits in a SF harbor owned by Norwegian but too expensive to refurbish due to its age (1950). "

Don't know if that's true or not but it's a lot more information than I did have!

On 2005-03-07 20:15, Dancin' Lizard wrote:
Today, the SS Independence sits in a SF harbor owned by Norwegian but too expensive to refurbish due to its age (1950).

I think I spotted the Independence in a San Francisco dry dock recently. It also spent some time in the Suisun Bay mothball fleet.

I've been told that the Constitution was "accidentally" sunk for the insurance money.

More info here:
http://www.maritimematters.com/americanhawaii.html

On 2005-03-07 21:16, cynfulcynner wrote:
I've been told that the Constitution was "accidentally" sunk for the insurance money.

You are absolutely right. It was being towed to Japan for scrap metal, and then sunk in a "storm".
Another true story; The Constitution was used as a cadaver ship for the Korean / Viet Nam / wars, and then transformed back to a cruise line. Yes, this ship was haunted.
It's stories like these that can raise the price of a simple Tiki mug. Hmmm?

Dancin' Lizard,
To confirm you're question; Yes those are
from the American Hawaiian Cruise Line.
The Tiki mug on the left, I still have, that I used as my tip jar on the ship. It's probably the gayest looking Tiki mug that I own (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Unga-Bunga -

Thanks for the information! One of the things I like about collecting is the learning curve.

I'll have to forward the information on about the cadavar ship. The Mr. loves that sort of stuff. He tells tales of Navy ships that he's been on that he's convinced are haunted.

I love how that tiki's head dress looks like a cob of ornamental corn. So bazaar!

My parents presented Marian and I with a complete set of these mugs for Christmas 2003. They told a friend of theirs about our tiki mug collection and they said they bought all of these mugs when they were on a Hawaiian cruise and didn't want them. The only mug you appear to be missing is the hula dancer. Personally they are a little too cute for my taste, but I couldn't argue with the price.
KG

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2005-03-08 10:40 ]

I recently added my newer set of these mugs for sale on ebay. Not as nice as the original ones you have, but still interesting to see their evolution.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6161230051

Very nice to see the diffrent styles. I wouldn't have known that the hula girl mug came from the later set. Thanks for sharing that!